Question #7: Do I give it [Scripture] time to speak to me everyday?

I've heard numerous examples of persons reading the same biblical text on consecutive days only to come away with different insights each day. Our lives move so quickly. Our "experience" seems to make leaps minute-by-minute rather than year-by-year. Our minds are overloaded with information. So, perhaps we should not be too surprised that we are afforded new insights when we encounter a familiar text. If, in fact, the Holy Spirit lends us understanding, then perhaps this explains why we sometimes "hear" something different each time we turn to Scripture. The Holy Spirit speaks to us in our time and space, where we are.

Taking time from our busy-ness to actually read and avail ourselves is a discipline. It is a discipline, however, that very well could make the difference between us feeling like we are being blown to-and-fro with no direction and us feeling like we are set upon a definitive path or calling. I think that this is something akin to what the old timers called "being grounded in Scripture."

Question #6: Did the Bible live in me today?

It may seem strange to ask if an inanimate object lives in anyone. I remember when a preceptor in a Theology lecture took a Bible and threw it across the room. I think a few people fainted. His point, however, was a poignant one: without the Holy Spirit the Bible is just a book. In other words, God gives life to the words we find in Scripture.

Sometimes I hear, "The Bible is a great guidebook for my life." This might be true, but only as a secondary function. The primary function of Scripture is to point us toward God, to reveal to us God and how God relates to God's people. So, God is the "life" we encounter through Scripture; the Bible is more than just a set of principles, laws, or guides because the principles, laws, and guides do not make sense removed from the story of a God who chooses to rescue, to pursue, to woo, and to love. In short, for Christians, the Bible does not make sense, or have "life," apart from the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Question #5: Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?

Being self-conscious is not always a bad thing. Being aware of who you are (or, whose you are) and how you function in the world can be healthy. The danger is when being self-conscious creates in you a desire to please others based on worldly attributes (i.e., you dress a certain way because "everyone" is wearing a certain brand). It is hard to serve two masters.

Other than being annoying to those who have to listen to the one vocally exercising self-pity, self-pity tends to take on a victim mentality. "The world is out to get me. Nothing ever goes my way." Christ did not play the victim even on his way to the cross - power perfected in weakness. As followers of this same Christ, who freely pours out his grace upon all, we have no need to play victim because "we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." So, no matter what might come our way, "...neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." What a gift!

Self-justification, hmmmm. George tries to convince Butch that wrestling a wild black bear might be dangerous. Butch guzzles the last of his ninth beer and says, "Nothing bad will happen to me." Behind most incidents of self-justification to do something we most likely should not is this hidden notion: nothing bad will happen to me. So, go wrestle a wild bear, if you must.

Eating red meat increases chance of death???

Sorry to take a step away from addressing Wesley's 22 questions, but when confronted with something so silly I feel the need to comment. Today I read an article that is titled "Eating red meat increases chance of death." Forget focusing on the rules about what words should be capitalized in a title as a sign that maybe the article is a little off. No, focus on the words: Eating red meat increases chance of death.

I am sure that eating a lot of red meat is not good for anyone. I guess my thought is this: don't we all have a 100% chance of death?

Question #4: Am I a slave to dress, friends, work or habits?

"You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride
You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side
You may be workin’ in a barbershop, you may know how to cut hair
You may be somebody’s mistress, may be somebody’s heir

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody" - Bob Dylan

Reading Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Community for the first time was a transforming experience. I was 18. Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon helped me see things about the Christian faith that I think I knew deep down to be true but I could not articulate.

Twenty-two years have passed since that first reading. So, please forgive whatever moments of amnesia I may experience in my recollection. The thing that I remember being most sobered by, however, was the argument that we are all slaves/servants to something or somebody. The question is whether or not the things and/or people we are slaves to are worthwhile. More importantly, it is hard (perhaps impossible) to be servants of Christ when our loyalties are devoted elsewhere.

Dylan is right.

Question #3: Can I be trusted?

In addressing this question, I have compiled a list of quotes that I find helpful. 


It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them. -- Mark Twain


To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved. -- George MacDonald


He who mistrusts most should be trusted least. -- Greek Proverb

No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence. -- T. S. Eliot


Few delights can equal the mere presence of one whom we trust utterly.  --George MacDonald

If people trust and love you, you will never walk alone. --Philippos


Character is much easier kept than recovered. --Thomas Paine

Wesley Question #2: Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?

"Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." - I Corinthians 10.17

As a fisherman, I really wish this question could be left off the list. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have caught a trout, released said trout, walked to a buddy 100 yards upstream to tell him about my catch, and the fish has miraculously grown 11 inches before I stop to brag about a fish that, in reality, could be swallowed whole by most goldfish.

Acceptance is one of the key ingredients in our feeling the need to exaggerate. We like to be liked; we love to be loved. There are myriads of reasons why we stretch the truth. What is the harm?

The harm is that when we get into the habit of stretching the truth we begin to wear masks that conceal our true identity. So, when we exaggerate to gain acceptance, the persons accepted are not really "us." Perception is not reality.

Sadly, one of the places people say that they feel the most need to put on masks is in church. Many fear that if they admit weakness or vulnerability in church, then they will be judged harshly.

Wesley understood - as we should all understand - that admitting one's failures should be a discipline practiced by all who follow Jesus. Ripping off the masks of invincibility is part of the journey toward understanding that all that is good comes through grace alone. Being honest about who we are then becomes a direct result of answering the question, "To whom do I belong." We belong to Jesus and the grace upon which we move and have our being.